The Wolf and the Tailor explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Trickery and Cunning

  Each animal and the tailor use clever tricks to outwit the wolf, highlighting the theme of cunning overcoming brute strength.

• Fate and Divine Justice

  Christ's commands set the wolf's fate, and the wolf's repeated failures and eventual death at the hands of his own pack suggest a form of divine or karmic justice.

Characters to notice

• The Wolf

  A hungry wolf who is commanded by Christ to eat a mare, a ram, and a tailor, but is outwitted each time and ultimately torn apart by his own pack.

• The Ram

  A ram who tricks the wolf by offering to jump into his mouth, then butts him hard on the forehead and escapes.

• The Mare

  A mare who deceives the wolf by claiming to have a passport near her hind feet, then kicks him and knocks out his teeth.

• The Tailor

  A clever tailor who outwits the wolf by pretending to take his measurements, then whips him and tears off his tail, and later escapes from a pack of wolves by climbing a tree and tricking them.

• Christ

  Christ appears in the story as the one who commands the wolf to eat the mare, the ram, and the tailor, setting the events in motion.

Key passages

• “This story is a story of the past⁠—of the days when Christ and the Twelve Apostles still walked on earth.”

  This tale is set in ancient times when Christ and his apostles were still alive on Earth.

  Establishes the mythological setting of the story.

• “So the wolf went up, and she kicked him with her hoofs, and knocked out his front teeth, so that the wolf was thrown, at a blow, three sazhéns away, and the mare ran off.”

  The wolf approached the mare's hind feet, and she kicked him so hard that she knocked out his front teeth and sent him flying three sazhéns away, then escaped.

  Describes the mare's successful trick on the wolf.

• “So the wolf stood on the hill, and the ram told him to open his mouth. So the wolf went and stood on the hill and opened his mouth for the food, and the ram ran down and hit him hard with the horns on his forehead⁠—whack!”

  The wolf stood on the hill with his mouth open, and the ram charged down and butted him hard on the forehead.

  Illustrates the ram's clever trick against the wolf.

• “So the tailor went back, took hold of the wolf by his tail, twined his tail round in his hand, and began to whip the wolf.”

  The tailor grabbed the wolf's tail, wrapped it around his hand, and started beating the wolf with it.

  Shows the tailor's cunning method of defeating the wolf.

• “When the tailor saw his ill-fate coming so near him, for they were nearer and nearer, he cried out to the top one: 'It is nobody's fault, only the manx-wolf's!' So the manx-wolf was frightened, and jumped out from below and ran off.”

  As the wolves climbed on each other to reach him, the tailor shouted that the tailless wolf at the bottom was to blame, causing that wolf to flee in fear.

  Demonstrates the tailor's final trick that leads to the wolves turning on each other.